A companion volume to Modern Asian Theatre and Performance 1900?2000, this anthology contains nine emblematic scripts from twentieth and twenty-first century Asian theatre. Opening with a history of modern Asian drama and a summary of the plays and their contexts, it features nine works written between 1912 and 2009 in Japan, China, Korea, India, Indonesia and Vietnam. Showcasing fresh contemporary writing alongside plays central to the established canon, the collection surveys each playwright's work, and includes: Father Returns by Kikuchi Kan Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech by Okada Toshiki Sunrise by Cao Yu I Love XXX by Meng Jinghui, Huang Jingang, Wang Xiaoli, Shi Hang Bicycle by O Tae-sok The Post Office by Rabindranath Tagore Hayavadana by Girish Karnad The Struggle of the Naga Tribe by W. S. Rendra Truong Ba's Soul in the Butcher's Skin by Luu Quang Vu The chronological and geographical breadth of the anthology provides a unique insight into modern Asian theatre and is essential to any understanding of its relation to Western drama and indigenous performance.

Nick Darke: "By turns dreamily inconsequential, passionately satirical, and sharply observant, he is one of the most interesting of our playwrights."—Sunday Telegraph The Dead Monkey: "Fiercely original and scaldingly funny."—Washington Post The King of Prussia: "Seethes with life, wit, and ideas ... This is a rich and good-humored work that embarks on its task of navigating Cornish identity with admirable stealth and is full of wicked contemporary barbs."—Financial Times The Body: "Of nukes and nuts down in the West ... goes with a swing."—The Times Ting Tang Mine: "A lament for an industry and a way of life; but this should not suggest anything sentimental. The writing is rugged and muscular; lyrical but not ornate; vigorous but not folksy ... oddball, quirkily parochial, and as authentic as a slice of rough bread." —Sunday Times

An account of language and drama between 1945 and 2005, synthesizing linguistic and dramatic knowledge in order to illuminate the ways in which anxieties and attitudes toward language manifest themselves in discourses on and around English theatre of the time, and how these anxieties and attitudes reflect back through the theatre of this period.

Closer emerged as one of the most successful plays of the 1990s, and one with a continuing afterlife through the academy award nominated film adaptation in 2004. Although the work of dramatists such as Sarah Kane and Mark Ravenhill initially attracted the most critical and academic attention, Patrick Marber's Closer had long West End and Broadway runs. The play has since gone on to repeat this success in over 30 other countries.

Anthony Neilson's plays collected in one volume Includes the plays: Normal "a tight, powerful, three-hander...achieved with a sense of discipline and thematic energy" (Guardian), Penetrator "This is one of the blackest, funniest and most shocking comedy dramas you will ever see" (Sunday Times), Year of the Family "His writing is as tight and courageous as ever...highly recommended for those who like to think" (What's On), The Night Before Christmas "is a smutty, dangerously funny but ultimately warm-hearted cri de coeur against the Christmas Industry" (Stage); The Censor "is a profound and tragic vision of humanity at its bare forked basics" (Evening Standard).

Some Voices: 'The most thrilling playwriting debut in years. . . The writing is razor-sharp, sensitive, quietly eloquent, full of the touchingly drab poetry of lost lives' (Sunday Times); Pale Horse: 'His second Court play is as compelling and extraordinary as his first . . . as taut, tight and atmospheric as Macbeth' (Observer); Love and Understanding: 'This is one of the best plays I've seen, ever, at this powerhouse of new writing . . . tough, eloquent, bruising' (Sunday Times); The Bullet: 'A Death of a Salesman for Britain in the nineties, and it is typical of Penhall's grace as a writer that it consciously echoes Arthur Miller while also emerging as an entirely distinctive work' (Daily Telegraph)

Following the gangland execution of her husband, the formidable matriarch Bernarda Alba will do anything to safeguard her family's dubious fortune and the future of her five daughters. A deal is struck - a marriage of convenience between her eldest girl and the son of a business rival. All Bernarda has to do is ensure that the wedding happens, and quickly. Five headstrong daughters cooped up in the family home in an emotionally charged atmosphere of bitter rivalry and repressed sexuality make that an epic challenge. One of the most celebrated European dramas of the 20th century, the play was finished by Lorca shortly before he was executed in Spain for his left-wing politics. He described it as a "drama of women in the villages of Spain" - a theme that is electrifyingly transposed in this version to the tough communities of Glasgow's East End. Faithfully preserving Lorca's sense of boiling tension and impending tragedy, this adaptation brings a classic text thrillingly up to date. This text was published to coincide with the world premiere of the adaptation, a production by the National Theatre of Scotland in 2009.

A collection of three plays for young actors written by Mark Ravenhill: Citizenship, Scenes from a Family Life and Totally Over You, and including an introduction by the author. Originally commissioned as part of the National Theatre Connections programme, these three plays were specifically written for teenagers and are ideal for young performers aged 13-25 years old. Written with greater warmth and humanity than you might expect from the author of such controversial works as Shopping and F***ing, Ravenhill's plays for teenagers are compassionate, intelligent and not at all patronising. With themes of particular interest to teenagers, the plays explore the search for identity during the transition to adulthood: self-perception, relationships, sexual identity and obsession with fame. Citizenship is a bittersweet comedy about growing up, following a boy's frank and messy search to discover his sexual identity: schoolboy Tom dreams of being kissed, but is unsure whether it is by a man or woman. Scenes from a Family Life is set in a world where everyone starts to dematerialise. Six months on and Jack and Stacy are the only boy and girl on the planet. For Jack it's a dream, for Stacy a nightmare. And when the vanished start to return, Jack has to learn how complex adult relationships are. Totally Over You is an exploration of celebrity-obsession. Four girls break up with their boyfriends when they decide they only want to see celebrities. The boys decide to trick the girls into thinking that they are on the brink of fame and fortune as a boy band. The girls decide to win the boys back. But what will happen when they discover the truth?

Published in conjunction with the Royal Court Theatre, this volume includes translations of five extraordinary new plays from France which were presented as part of the French Theatre Season in London during 1997 One More Wasted Year by Christopher Pellet presents two young men who inhabit a world of cafes and rented bed-sits, in their late twenties they already seem to old for a youth-obsessed world; Agnegrave;s by Catherine Anne is a play that gradually reveals the details of a father's obsession for his daughter and the way he emotionally blackmails her into satisfying his lust; The Northern Fox by Noelle Renaud contains several dramatic developments including that of the infidelities of Maxime Fuyard and the marital infidelities of Mr and Mrs Kuhn and Otto's bored and feverish bed-hopping; In Mickey The Torch by Natacha de Pontcharra Mickey works as a nightwatchman in a bleak contemporary cityscape; A Desire to Kill on the Tip of the Tongue by Xavier Durringer is the story working-class youth adrift and prey to the needs for sex, drink or drugs, it shows the shifting relationships between a group of friends hanging about outside a disco.The translators are Martin Crimp (One More Wasted Year); Nigel Gearing (Agnes); Annabel Arden (Mickey the Torch); A Desire to Kill on the Tip of the Tongue (Mark Ravenhill); Gillian Hanna (The Northern Fox)

Patrick comes home unexpectedly from the seminary and older brother Johnny's not slow to tap him for money. Mum is suspicious, Dad seems indifferent, and pissed, and little sister Cath is distracted and medicated. Nobody Will Ever Forgive Us is the story of a family under siege. Living on their wits and stalked by violence, they defend themselves with the blackest of humour. The play was produced as part of the National Theatre of Scotland/Traverse Theatre's Debuts season and premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in November 2008. 'A keen sense of theatrical dynamics, vigorous dialogue and ready wit.' Guardian